'You are some rich guy's exit strategy': Vivian Tu says 'your guy friends are getting duped' by Elon Musk's SpaceX IPO

“Everybody thinks that the SpaceX IPO is gonna be the hottest party in town. But your friends are not party guests. They’re party favors,” Tu said. “Regular people think they’re getting access, but in reality, you are just some rich guy’s exit strategy.”

Tu, 32, started her career as an equity trader at JPMorgan before leaving Wall Street. She’s since become a New York Times bestselling author, a TIME 100 creator, and SoFi’s first Chief of Financial Empowerment. She’s built an audience of about 10 million across TikTok and Instagram by making Wall Street happenings more accessible, translating all the busy financial jargon into plain English.

The numbers behind Tu’s warning

Tu’s first argument is about who’s actually selling. SpaceX has been private for more than two decades, and its earliest backers have been waiting a long time for a payday. “Private investors bought in years ago and they’ve been sitting on this equity for like a decade. And now they wanna cash out,” she said. “And suddenly retail investors are allowed to participate? Yeah, you’re gonna participate in holding the bag.”

Then she turned to the financials, and here the company’s own S-1 filing backs her up. SpaceX’s revenue rose just 15% year over year in the first quarter of 2026, to about $4.7 billion. Over the same stretch, losses ballooned: The company posted a net loss of roughly $4.3 billion in the quarter, compared with $528 million a year earlier. That’s more than a sevenfold jump, or a 700% increase, which Tu makes mention of in the video.

“They’re trying to convince everybody that this company is worth 107 times sales,” she said, citing a figure other analysts have landed on, too. “For context, Meta went public at 28 times sales, but they had 88% revenue growth.”

Indeed, when Facebook (now Meta) made its stock market debut in 2012, its $104 billion valuation sat atop about $3.7 billion in 2011 sales, roughly 28 times revenue. And that revenue had grown 88% the year before the offering. In other words, investors paid up for a company that was still growing fast. SpaceX is asking for a far richer multiple while growing far slower.

How SpaceX could land in your 401(k) whether you buy in or not

Tu’s second concern is the structure of the deal itself. SpaceX is setting aside as much as 30% of its shares for retail investors, roughly three times the 5% to 10% a typical IPO reserves for everyday buyers. Tu made special mention of Nasdaq’s new fast-entry pathway, announced less than a week ago (make of that what you will), which lets a newly listed company join major benchmarks far sooner than the old rules allowed. Morningstar confirms SpaceX will conveniently qualify for this new rule, automatically joining the Nasdaq-100 after just 15 trading days and triggering “forced buying” from funds that track the index.

“It’s kind of like knowing a promoter at the club and being able to cut the line,” Tu said.

The catch, she explained, is that index funds sit inside the retirement accounts millions of Americans rely on. As Moneywise has reported, a broad total-market fund could pick up the stock within a week of the IPO. If your 401(k) holds one, you may end up owning a piece of an unprofitable company without ever choosing to.

“Regular people could end up being the rescue boat for Elon Musk’s currently unprofitable company,” Tu said, “even if they never intentionally bought SpaceX themselves.”

SpaceX did not immediately respond to Moneywise’s request for comment.